Wikipedia

Nina Schwalbe

Nina Schwalbe (born 18 April 1966) is an American public health researcher who is the founder of Spark Street Advisors, a public health think tank based in New York City. Schwalbe specializes in vaccines. She has previously worked at Gavi, UNICEF and USAID.

Nina Schwalbe
Nina Schwalbe at UNU-IIGH, Malaysia
Born1966
Academic background
Alma materHarvard University, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Academic work
InstitutionsGavi, the vaccine alliance, UNICEF, USAID, Open Society Foundations
Main interestsGlobal vaccine development, Delivery and deployment, Gender and public health, Access to medicine

Early life and education

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Schwalbe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother, Mary Anne Schwalbe, was one of the founders of the International Rescue Committee UK, and founding director of the Women's Refugee Commission.[1][2] Her brother Will Schwalbe is an author, editor, and entrepreneur.[3]

Schwalbe was an undergraduate student in Russian and Soviet Studies at Harvard Radcliffe Colleges, where she was the recipient of the Aloian-Beal Leadership Award.[4][5] Immediately after graduation, Schwalbe joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand.[citation needed] In 1993, Schwalbe received a Master's in Public Health from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health,[6] where she concentrated on maternal child health, as well as a certificate from Columbia's Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.[7]

Career

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Schwalbe started her career in Thailand and Russia, working for the Soros Foundation and establishing the public health program in Moscow. On returning to the United States she was made Director of Public Health Programs at the Open Society Institute/Soros Foundation.[8] Amongst other global initiatives, Schwalbe worked with Paul Farmer and Partners in Health to treat drug resistant tuberculosis in Russian prisons.[9][10] She was on the founding board of the Stop TB Partnership and spearheaded the development of first Global Plan to Stop TB.[11]

In 2005, Schwalbe was made Director of Policy at the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development.[12] In this capacity, she developed collaborations and coalitions between governments of low and lower-middle income and OECD countries, UN bodies and members of the G8 to accelerate the regulatory approval and procurement and distribution of new therapeutics for tuberculosis.[12]

Schwalbe joined GAVI, the vaccine alliance, in 2007, serving as Deputy Executive Secretary and Managing Director for Policy and Performance.[13] In her seven years at Gavi, Schwalbe developed policies and strategy on vaccine investment, market shaping, monitoring and evaluation, and performance management. She worked on the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine and GAVI's first gender policy.[14][15] In 2011, Schwalbe successfully negotiated with pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders to expand the Gavi portfolio to include affordable Human papillomavirus vaccines.[16][17][18] Schwalbe was Chair of the GAVI Evaluation Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2021.[19]

Schwalbe worked as UNICEF's principal advisor and acting chief of health, where she oversaw health programs in over 150 countries. She was responsible for delivering over 1 billion vaccines annually to children around the world.[20] Working with experts, frontline providers, and communities worldwide, Schwalbe developed the UNICEF Strategy for Health 2016-2030, which lays out a detailed vision for ending preventable maternal, newborn and child death and promoting the health of all children and adolescents.[21] Schwalbe was member of the interagency design team for the Global Financing Facility for Maternal, Child, Newborn and Adolescent Health (GFF) a partnership housed at the World Bank.[22]

COVID-19 response

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In 2021, Schwalbe established and served as the first director of COVID-19 Vaccine Access and Delivery Initiative at USAID,[23] where she coordinated distribution of 1 billion vaccine doses to low- and lower-middle income countries and the development of the GlobVax, an all of government effort to accelerate US vaccine delivery assistance around the world. Schwalbe also co-chaired WHO-UNESCO Research Network Working Group on Educational Institutions and COVID-19.[24]

Other activities

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Schwalbe sits as Commissioner for The Lancet on gender and health,[25] a commissioner for the Women's Refugee Commission, and serves as a Principal Visiting Fellow at the United Nations International Institute for Global Health. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also adjunct assistant professor in the Heilbronn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.[26]

Personal life

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Schwalbe and her partner live in New York City with their two children.[27]

Selected publications

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Analysis and opinion

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Journal articles

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  • Viner R, Russell S, Saulle R, Stansfield C, Croker H, Packer J, Nicholls D, Goddings AL, Bonell C, Hudson L, Hope S, Ward J, Schwalbe N, Morgan A, Minozzi S. School Closures During Social Lockdown and Mental Health, Health Behaviors, and Well-being Among Children and Adolescents During the First COVID-19 Wave: A Systematic Review. JAMA Pediatrics. Published online January 18, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.5840
  • Oliver K, Raut A, Pierre S, Silvera L, Boulos A, Gale A, Baum A, Chory A, David NJ, D'Souza D, Freeman A, Goytia C, Hamilton A, Horowitz C, Islam N, Jeavons J, Knudson J, Li S, Lupi J, Martin R, Maru S, Nabeel I, Pimenova D, Romanoff A, Rusanov S, Swalbe N, Vangeepuram N, Vreeman R, Masci J, Maru D. Factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine receipt at two integrated healthcare systems in New York City: a cross-sectional study of healthcare workers. BMJ Open. 2022;12:e05341. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053641
  • Aars OK, Clark M, Schwalbe N. Increasing efficiency in vaccine production: A primer for change. Vaccine: X. 2021;8(100104). doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2021.100104
  • Schwalbe N, Wahl B. Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Global Health. Lancet. 2020;395(10236):1579-1586. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30226-9
  • Kettler H, Lehtimaki S, Schwalbe N. Accelerating Access to Medicines in a Changing World. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2020;98:641-643. doi:10.2471/BLT.19.249664

References

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  1. ^ "In Memoriam: Mary Anne Schwalbe". International Rescue Committee (IRC). 2009-09-22. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  2. ^ "Our History". Women's Refugee Commission. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Will Schwalbe: 'The End Of Your Life Book Club'". WBUR. November 22, 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  4. ^ "The Reporter's Notebook | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  5. ^ "Spark Street Advisors | Strategy | Nina Schwalbe". Spark Street_nov19. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  6. ^ "Nina Schwalbe - Agenda Contributor". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  7. ^ "Harriman Institute Theses and Dissertations, 1947-2018 | Columbia University Archives | Columbia University Libraries Finding Aids". findingaids.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  8. ^ "Speaker Nina Schwalbe - Women Leaders in Global Health Conference". Women Leaders in Global Health. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  9. ^ Cocker, Richard, Atun, Rifat, McKee, Martin (2008). Health systems and the challenge of communicable disease: experiences from Europe and Latin America. Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-335-23365-6. OCLC 476114275.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Schwalbe, Nina; Harrington, Persephone (2002-12-01). "HIV and tuberculosis in the former Soviet Union". The Lancet. 360: s19–s20. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11805-8. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 12504488. S2CID 38843056.
  11. ^ Sudetic, Chuck (2011). The philanthropy of George Soros : building open societies (1 ed.). New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-859-8. OCLC 723450976.
  12. ^ a b "TB Alliance Appoints Nina Schwalbe as Director of Policy". 4 July 2005.
  13. ^ "Nina Schwalbe - International Institute for Global Health". iigh.unu.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  14. ^ "Gender policy to support equal access to vaccination for girls and boys". www.gavi.org. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  15. ^ "Gender policy". www.gavi.org. 15 October 2019. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  16. ^ "Working towards affordable pricing for HPV vaccines for developing countries: The role of GAVI" (PDF).
  17. ^ "Fund backs cervical cancer vaccine in poor nations". Reuters. 17 November 2011.
  18. ^ Cheng, Maria (17 November 2011). "Vaccines group plans to buy cervical cancer shots". Boston.com.
  19. ^ "Evaluation studies". 5 June 2024.
  20. ^ "Nina Schwalbe - International Institute for Global Health". iigh.unu.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  21. ^ "Strategy for Health 2016-2030".
  22. ^ "OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK for the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health" (PDF).
  23. ^ "Restaurants, gyms vow to keep fighting for aid after dose of cold water from White House". Politico.
  24. ^ Nina Schwalbe: How do we get vaccines to the people who need them most?, 17 June 2021, retrieved 2022-04-19
  25. ^ Hawkes, Sarah; Allotey, Pascale; Elhadj, As Sy; Clark, Jocalyn; Horton, Richard (2020). "The Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health". The Lancet. 396 (10250): 521–522. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31547-6. PMC 7402649. PMID 32763153. S2CID 220962775.
  26. ^ "Nina Schwalbe | Columbia Public Health". Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  27. ^ Schwalbe, Nina. "Nina S." Devex. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
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